LCJO/Marsalis

The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, directed by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, is "Out Here to Swing", according to the title of this late-night Prom. The 15-piece group also aims to keep the classic jazz big-band repertoire (Ellington, Basie, Evans etc) in good shape. However, it is almost impossible for young musicians both to swing and to play authentically the music of earlier generations.

Marsalis addresses the balance by employing Herlin Riley on drums, Carlos Henriquez on bass and Eric Lewis on piano - musicians who make everything they touch turn to swing. At the Albert Hall, Lewis's long, dynamite introduction to Ornette Coleman's Ramblin', which featured Marsalis on washboard (a Proms first?), was closer to the spirit of Coleman than the arrangement that followed.

The programme touched several bases of the US jazz tradition, including Charles Mingus and Billie Holiday. Courteously, Marsalis also nodded to several British contributions to the music: the early championing of Duke Ellington as an artist; Lullaby of Birdland, by English pianist George Shearing; and Scottish saxophonist Joe Temperley (holding down the crucial baritone part), who soloed movingly in Ellington's Symphonette, from Black Brown and Beige.

The orchestra also creates new work, collaborating with musicians from around the world. Here, the most substantial new piece was Evolution of the Groove, a five-part drum concerto composed by Marsalis and Riley. This covers all the bases: shouting orchestration, intricate part-writing, punchy solos and a beautiful ballad section featuring hand drums. Riley drew a huge variety of sounds from his standard kit, sounding like a Cuban percussion ensemble one minute and a New Orleans street parade the next. For the finale, he made sweet thunder with the double-bass drum pedal while creating a characterful part on tambourine, and it ended on a funky groove complete with foot-stomping and handclaps.